RPRD Diagnostics Partners with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital to Offer Comprehensive Pharmacogenetics Testing

WAUWATOSA, Wis. and MEMPHIS, Tenn., Oct. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- RPRD (Right Patient Right Drug) Diagnostics, a privately-held, Wisconsin-based precision medicine company, today announced a collaboration with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.  RPRD Diagnostics will perform preemptive, comprehensive clinical pharmacogenetics testing for St. Jude's PG4KDS program.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is a leader in pre-emptive pharmacogenetics and its implementation into clinical care, especially for pediatric oncology and hematology.  Under their PG4KDS program, every St. Jude patient is eligible to receive comprehensive pharmacogenetic testing, usually at the beginning of his or her treatment.  The results are entered into the patient's electronic medical record, enabling clinicians to utilize this information when choosing and dosing a drug.

RPRD's collaboration with St. Jude utilizes the comprehensive pharmacogenomics genotyping platform PharmacoScan™ Solution from Thermo Fisher Scientific. Launched in 2016, the PharmacoScan platform was developed in collaboration with pharmacogenomics consortia and Ulrich Broeckel, MD, founder and CEO of RPRD Diagnostics and a key collaborator on its content selection. The platform can interrogate with one single assay more than 4,600 markers in nearly 1,200 genes.

RPRD Diagnostics cost-effective pharmacogenomics testing improves upon traditional, widely used tests that screen just a limited set of genes. The Company's tests provide support for clinicians to make decisions about the safest drug treatment for their patients, taking into account the patient's unique genetic profile. Tailoring treatments in this way can improve patient outcomes, reduce the risk of negative drug reactions and lower overall costs.

"We are excited that St. Jude has chosen RPRD Diagnostics as their reference laboratory for comprehensive pharmacogenetics testing, and we appreciate their confidence in our testing platform and expertise. St. Jude and RPRD share a common vision for implementing preemptive pharmacogenetic testing in clinical care," said Dr. Broeckel, who is also a lead researcher and professor of pediatrics, medicine and physiology, and an associated director at the Genomic Sciences and Precision Medicine Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin, as well as an investigator at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin Research Institute. "In addition to offering comprehensive testing services, we are pleased to serve as a reference lab for the St. Jude Total XVII clinical trial for patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia or lymphoma.  Our recently launched CNT™ Panel offers testing targeted at these diseases and provides results that will be used to adjust drug dosing as part of the clinical trial."

"We are excited about collaborating with RPRD and utilizing the PharmacoScan platform because it includes more of the genomic variants that are considered actionable for prescribing decisions based on Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium (CPIC^®) guidelines," said Mary Relling, Pharm.D., principal investigator of the PG4KDS program and Chair of the Pharmaceutical Department at St. Jude. "This means we will be able to provide guidance to our prescribers for more medications going forward."

"We are extremely proud to have the PharmacoScan Solution being offered for routine use in clinical research on samples from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital," said Shantanu Kaushikkar, Director Genotyping Microarrays at Thermo Fisher Scientific. "RPRD has been a fantastic longstanding partner in the development and launch of the PharmacoScan platform, and we are excited to see the product being used in preemptive pharmacogenetics. We look forward to working with both RPRD Diagnostics and St. Jude in this exciting phase in pharmacogenetic testing for the PG4KDS program."

About RPRD Diagnostics
RPRD (Right Patient Right Drug) Diagnostics is a precision medicine company offering clinical pharmacogenomics (PGx) testing and analysis services to healthcare providers and pharmaceutical companies. Results from RPRD Diagnostic's PGx tests are used by healthcare providers to support clinical decision-making, thereby improving patient outcomes and reducing costs. The company specializes in both comprehensive PGx and tailored panels, such as the CNT™ Panel for identification of leukemia patients at risk for toxicity from thiopurine drugs. These tests enable physicians to consider a patient's unique genetic profile when recommending drug treatment. See www.rprdx.com.

About St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is leading the way the world understands, treats and cures childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. It is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted solely to children. St. Jude is ranked the No. 1 pediatric cancer hospital by U.S. News & World Report. Treatments developed at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20 percent to 80 percent since the hospital opened more than 50 years ago. St. Jude freely shares the breakthroughs it makes, and every child saved at St. Jude means doctors and scientists worldwide can use that knowledge to save thousands more children. Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing and food — because all a family should worry about is helping their child live. To learn more, visit stjude.org or follow St. Jude on social media at @stjuderesearch.

About Thermo Fisher Scientific
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is the world leader in serving science, with revenues of $18 billion and more than 55,000 employees globally. Our mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. We help our customers accelerate life sciences research, solve complex analytical challenges, improve patient diagnostics and increase laboratory productivity. Through our premier brands – Thermo Scientific, Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Fisher Scientific and Unity Lab Services – we offer an unmatched combination of innovative technologies, purchasing convenience and comprehensive support. For more information, please visit www.thermofisher.com.

Media Contacts:

RPRD Diagnostics
Joleen Rau (608) 209-0792  
[email protected]

St. Jude Media Relations Contacts
Marvin Stockwell
Desk: (901) 595-0445
Cell: (901) 734-8766
[email protected]

Michael Sheffield            
Desk: (901) 595-0221
Cell: (901) 379-6072
[email protected]

SOURCE RPRD Diagnostics

Related Links

http://www.rprdx.com